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M is for Metacognition. A Discussion of How Teachers’ Brains Engage During Periods of Highly Creative Work A Challenge to the Status Quo of Current Thinking About Thinking National Title I Conference, San Diego, CA 2014. Dr. Linda Karges-Bone www.educationinsite.com.
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M is for Metacognition A Discussion of How Teachers’ Brains Engage During Periods of Highly Creative Work A Challenge to the Status Quo of Current Thinking About Thinking National Title I Conference, San Diego, CA 2014 Education InSite
Dr. Linda Karges-Bonewww.educationinsite.com • Charleston Southern University • Professor, Author, Radio Host • Differentiated Pathways of the Brain and Breaking Brain Barriers • Brain-Framing: Instructional Planning With the Brain in Mind • Brain Verse: Activities to Build Literacy and Neural Connectivity • Brain Tips: Simple Yet Sensational Brain-Friendly Strategies for Improving Teaching, Learning, and • Consultant to Title I Schools around the US/Former Special Ed. Teacher Education InSite
Our Task Maximizing Teachers’ Impact in High Poverty Settings With innovative, brain-friendly practices Education InSite
Maximizing the 3 C’s Education InSite
Why Metacognition? • Let’s Deconstruct the word. • Meta=Self • Cognition=Thinking • An “Awareness of One’s Own Thinking” Education InSite
For Teachers….It is Truly Meta-Metacognition • One must be aware of one’s OWN thinking. • Concurrently, one must be aware of how students are or are not engaged in thinking. • It is a process unlike any other. • Exhausting • Exhilarating Education InSite
Teachers Who Work in High Poverty Settings • Do not have the luxury of simple COGNITION. • Thinking is not enough. • Metacognition is required. Education InSite
Why? Three Reasons…. Education InSite
There should be enough… Spread out, it is about the size of a linen dinner napkin. But, if you were to count the synapses at the rate of 1 per second, you would finish 32 million years after you began! Bright Air, Brilliant Fire Robert Sylwester Education InSite
But the Amygdalas Kick In • Almond Shaped Clusters • Triggered by stress • Unleash Cortisol • Shutting down higher order thinking • Damaging the brain Education InSite
The Challenge • Cortisol, the stress hormone does so much damage to our brains as it seeps out: shutting down the pre-frontal cortex, impeding creativity: actually shrinking the hippocampus, the center of memory; and slowing neuro-genesis. But, when you recognize the fact that simply living in poverty triggers cortisol, even when there is no direct stressor like abuse or illness in a child’s life, you have a huge problem. Dr. Linda Karges-Bone
The Answer……Metacognition • Maintaining an uber-awareness • A gestalt of where everything and everyone is in space and time. • A pre-cognition of what might come next. • And how the teacher and every other player on the cognitive chess board is going to react. Education InSite
Metacognition Requires MORE Education InSite
And MORE • Challenges from the Common Core • Deeper, Richer Curriculum • Demands Deeper, Richer Neural Connectivity Education InSite
10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #1…..Teachers’ Brains Deserve Attention. • Put the Oxygen Mask on Yourself First! Education InSite
Strategy • Treat teachers’ brains like gold. • Reduce their stress. • Enhance their wellness. • Harness their creativity. Education InSite
Your challenge….. Plan something special and rewarding for teachers every week. Education InSite
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Gandhi METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite
10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #2…..Teachers Need Time to Transition into a Metacognitive State . • Common Core Planning is Different from Fragmented 6 point Lesson Planning. Education InSite
Strategy • Provide Planning Time to Integrate and Investigate Common Core Connections. • If you want the CORE to be rigorous, your planning time must be rigorous. Education InSite
Your challenge….. RE-configure schedules to enable robust shared planning and guard this time jealously! Education InSite
“Change Your Thoughts and You Change Your World” Norman Vincent Peale METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite
10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #3….Think carefully about how assessments are used. • Assessments reveal different attributes of students’ abilities. Education InSite
Strategy • Re-visit portfolios. • Implement tiered assessments where possible. • Create a balance of high and low stakes assessments. Education InSite
Your challenge….. You may not be able to control the state or district level assessments, but you can shift traditional testing at the classroom level to be more reflective. Education InSite
“The belief that all genuine education comes about through experience does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or equally educative. “ John Dewey METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite
10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #4….Consider the role of neuro-architecture. • Environment matters to the gray matter. . Education InSite
Strategy • Give teachers mini grants to design more brain-friendly settings. • Use soothing colors such as greens, blues. Education InSite
Your challenge….. Take the “Are You a Neuro-Architect?” quiz from Dr. Bone’s book Brain Framing and act on the results with colors, music, and water features. Education InSite
“The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say ‘the children are working as if I do not exist. ‘ “ Maria Montessori METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite
10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #5….Practice brain-friendly praise strategies. • Give both teachers and students cues that increase neural productivity. • Train the brain to take creative risks and enjoy the journey of learning. . Education InSite
Strategy • Read the work of Dr. Carol Dweck as a faculty. • Remember that praise for intelligence freezes the brain. Praising effort sets it free! Education InSite
Your challenge….. Put up “Praise Stem Posters” with fresh stems to help teachers re-think the ways that they praise. Education InSite
“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement” CS Lewis METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite
10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #6….Think GREEN • Recognize the importance of novelty and nature to metacognition. . Education InSite
Strategy • Harness the power of green spaces, outdoor classrooms, and sunlight to enhance thinking. Education InSite
Your challenge….. Give rewards to teachers who create at least one outdoor classroom lesson each week. Even a “Power Walk” before a writing activity is powerful for metacognition. Education InSite
“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. “ William Shakespeare METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite
10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #7….Consider the new research on creativity. • Connect this research to what we know about metacognition. • Kids and teachers need time to think INSIDE THE BOX. • Drew Boyd and Jacob Goldenberg . Education InSite
Strategy • Subtraction • Unification • Multiplication • Division • http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324188604578541843266186054 Education InSite
Your challenge….. Implement the “Fed-Ex” Creativity model at the next faculty meeting. Draw the name of a teacher and give him/her a free afternoon to develop a fresh idea for your site. “Deliver “ it at the next meeting. Education InSite
““Art is an elastic sort of love. “ Josephine Baker METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite
10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #8….Reduce the impact of stress in order to shift the brain into metacognitive mode. • Recognize the fact that children who live in poverty have more of the stress hormone cortisol, which impedes thinking. . Education InSite
Strategy • Increase physical activity in order to stimulate “Exercise Induced Neuro-genesis and the release of BDNF..which acts like “Miracle Gro for the brain. • BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor) Education InSite
Your challenge….. Set up a Walking Program for both teachers and kids. Set goals, such as “Walking to the State Capitol”. Get pedometers donated. Education InSite
“Don’t try to fix the students. Fix ourselves first. “ Marva Collins METACOGNITION MOMENT Education InSite
10 Strategies to Maximize Metacognition • #9….Harness the connection between literacy and metacognition. • Neural-Scaffolding requires fluency and flexibility in language. • By some estimates, there is a 30 million word difference between children who live in poverty and their non-poverty peers by age 4. . Education InSite
Strategy • Become familiar with the research:http://centerforeducation.rice.edu/slc/LS/30MillionWordGap.html • Set high expectations for language in your classroom. Education InSite